"The women of Bikini Kill let guitarist Billy Karren be in their feminist punk band, but only if he's willing to just "do some shit." Being a feminist dude is like that. We may ask you to "do some shit" for the band, but you don't get to be Kathleen Hannah."--@heatherurehere

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Gender Comics Roundup: Men Are Callous, Sex-Obsessed Cretins Who Don't Know How to Load a Dishwasher. Oh! And Women Are Nags.

Once again, the daily comics paint a bleak picture as to what it means to be gendered. (Until we fix our formatting, click on any comic to enlarge.)

How Men Interact with Each Other: No Empathy Allowed

Funny, because this describes exactly how I interact with my male friends! First of all, I only do so while drinking. Secondly, I only inquire as to how they are doing if it doesn't involve me directly. Thirdly, we never empathize with each other. That would be girly. Or gay. Or both.

Men let their significant others be burned alive because they like to watch boobies:I have to admit that F-Minus is still one of my favorite comic strips. Tony Carrillo often has stuff in his strips that subtly defy gender norms, actually. But this one irks me, in part because of the violence-by-neglect involved. It still would have been "funny" if, say, the house was just burning down around him, but instead his wife is burning to death. Which doesn't make it funnier, to me. (To be fair, I'm being heterosexist here: The guy could be bi and his 'hon' might be a guy. Still, his SO is, as I mentioned, burning to death.)

Men Can't Do Chores, and Women Are Really Good About Nagging Them About It:So good at it, in fact, that they can teach men a class on it! ha! Take that, nagging wives and girlfriends! And take that, erm, men who don't load the dishwasher!

Of course, there are problems regarding how men do and don't share household chores, so there is a way in which this is both funny and true. Still, both men and women seem to be mocked here, or at least the traditional stereotypes of 'em. Also, apparently, to properly load the dishwasher you have to do it like you're doing yoga.

Women Only Want Strong, Burly Men:My namesake, Jeff, is mistaken on at least two counts: One, that drinking a healthy drink will make him tall and strong and, two, that all women only want men who are tall and strong.

On a slightly more serious note, it is interesting what happens to one when one realizes that there are people who find one's current body type hawt. You go through life thinking you have to measure up to some set of standards, and then somebody comes along as chastises you for wanting to get rid of your belly, because that's what they like (in part) about you. It's disorienting.